


Iron Forged in Stars & Stripes

by hellaradbros



Category: Marvel 3490
Genre: Earth-3490, F/M, will add more characters as it goes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-03
Updated: 2016-02-14
Packaged: 2018-05-04 17:28:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5342420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hellaradbros/pseuds/hellaradbros
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Natasha's occasional drink gets out of hand and now things haven't turned out quite how she thought they would.  Now she's in a pickle and What should she do? She had no idea.</p><p>Steve Rogers moved in to help Natasha complete her work on Stark Tower, but her recovery is going slower than planned after the first battle. Even a year later, he's still helping her go though the final stages of it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

 

**_Natasha Stark_ **

  
Natasha typically could hold her liquor. However...when she downed half a bottle of gin out of boredom, holding her liquor turned into being flat out drunk. While this didn't result in vomit all over her lab, it did mean that she was spinning around in her chair, pondering why things had happened the way they did.  
  
"Jarvis, remind me why I'm doing this again?", she questioned, letting out a yawn as her words slurred. She couldn't remember what had made her start drinking other than she really didn't want to do anything. Besides that...there was nothing.

"Because you were frustrated, I believe.", her AI replied.

Right...

Natasha started spinning again, waiting on something interesting. Something worth her time, even if she was drunk. "I feel like my dad enhanced Steve just to spite me, even though that was seventy or so years ago and I wasn't even born yet. I mean, I probably wasn't even a sparkle in my birth parent's eyes yet. He had such a vendetta against me."  
  


Jarvis, in his typical fashion, disagreed. "Your father did it to help save the world, miss. I doubt it was out of personal spite for a child that he didn't know yet." Of course he would say that. Jarvis was the logic in her world.

At that, she laughed and continued spinning. "I'm not being serious, Jarvis. However, the way he walks around like he and his big, buff bara titties own the place. He's all high and mightier than thee and has a "America Incarnate" attitude about him. It drives me nuts and I love it. God, I love him. I would-"

Jarvis suddenly interrupted her train of thought. "Miss."

"stare at his-"

"Miss-"

"perfect ass all day long."

" _Miss_!", the AI almost shouted, causing her to get angry and look up at the ceiling.

"What Jarvis?"

"You have a visitor."

Natasha looked around, her cheeks flushing red as she realized it was none other than her house guest...Steve Rogers.

He looked at her with a bit of what she thought was confusion as he said, "Am I ah, interrupting something?"

The dark haired woman jumped up, the chair moving with her until she tripped and-

 

 

_**Nothing.** _

 

 

_**Steve Rogers** _

 

Steve had been putting up dry wall when Jarvis started talking to him, scaring the American. Luckily, he'd just set things down so that he could take a break, so nothing got hurt.

"Sir, Miss Stark has drank too much and she may require assistance. I would advise going down to see her as soon as you can.", he informed the blond, to which Steve responded, "I'll help her, tell her I'll be down soon, Jarvis.", he said with a sigh, shaking his head. "What am I going to do with her?", he wondered allowed to himself, then started down the stairs.

Stark Tower was a massive place. Scratch that, enormous. Even then, that barely described how he felt how big it was. He honestly enjoyed living there with Natasha, even if she could be a pain sometimes, but the work was fulfilling (even if he wasn't a solder at the time.) However, the job came with the difficulty of what he was thinking about /all the time./

More specifically, who.

Natasha was always on his mind. She was beautiful, smart, passionate, and so much more.The way her hair shined in the morning or evening light, the way she smiled while laughing or after he helped cheer her up because of a frustrating project or over the current situation. He loved the way her eyes lit up when she was excited, how she could make his insides fluttery with just the slightest brush of her hand against his by accident.Most of all, over the past year, he'd fallen totally in love with the black haired woman.

No, Steve wasn't drugged or brain washed or drunk. He really did love her with all of his heart and he couldn't figure out why, but the man with baby blues remembered the feeling of when he first realized it. He wanted to take her out and treat her nice. He wanted to be a gentleman and show her how someone should really treat a lady.

It took a few to get there, but Steve finally made it to the work shop, where he could hear her drunken rambling silenced by the door. It was more muttered than anything. He opened the door and walked into...

"I'm not being serious, Jarvis. However, the way he walks around like he and his big, buff bara titties own the place. He's all high and mightier than thee and has a "America Incarnate" attitude about him. It drives me nuts and I love it. God, I love him. I would-"

Jarvis suddenly interrupted her train of thought. "Miss."

"stare at his-"

"Miss-"

"perfect ass all day long."

"/Miss/!", the AI almost shouted, causing her to get angry and look up at the ceiling.

"What Jarvis?"

"You have a visitor."

Natasha looked around, her cheeks flushing red as she realized it was none other than him.

He looked at her with a bit of what she thought was confusion as he said, "Am I ah, interrupting something?"

The dark haired woman jumped up, the chair moving with her until she tripped and she was down, her head making a loud crack against the floor.He rushed to her, checking for blood or sign of injury. She wasn't waking and she was still breathing, so he took it as she was knocked out and started the long process of walking all the way up to the room she was in while her pent house was under construction. He tucked her into bed, brushing the hair out of her face as she moved a bit, rolling onto her back with a soft groan.

Steve kissed her on the forehead, leaving the room after shutting off the light. It was dark out when he looked out a window and he decided that he should go to bed, despite it only being seven. So that's what he did.


	2. The Difference Between Horse Shoes and Hand Grenades

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Natasha has to deal with a reality that she wishes didn't exist, followed by a persistent Cap who doesn't want to let it go just yet. Which side will win? Who knows.

**_Natasha Stark_ **

Natasha woke, her heart racing and head aching. Where was she? She looked around, seeing pictures of Steve, of Peggy, of... _her_? Ok, that was different. Obviously though, this was Steve's room.

The last thing she could remember was...oh god, no.  Please, she didn't want that to be the last thing that happened between her and Steve.

There was a note on the night stand, and it had her name on it. Rather than reading it, the brunette sighed and ran a hand through her tangled mess  for hair. Natasha got out of bed and regretted getting trashed without locking the door to her lab. "Jarvis, Deactivation Code 24 Bravo-Alpha-369 Omega."  
  
"Backdoor Program Activated, Miss."  
  
'Good.', she thought aloud, stretching a it. "Open my private elevator, please.", she asked, walking over to the mini fridge as it moved, the wall sliding out and rolling up. She stepped in and everything started to replace itself. "To the Lab, please."  
  


On the way down, she was thinking about what'd happened, how she felt about Steve. It was all mentally taxing, to be honest. She just wanted this to go back to normal, so Natasha would ignore it as long as she could.  Yea, that sounded good.  
  
So once she got to the lab, Natasha grabbed her noise canceling headphones, plugged in some music, and decided to work on her cars. They needed oil changes, tune ups, and a couple other easy fixes. Plus, she wanted to get to work on her newest car, which needed a lot of help. So she started by taking apart the newest of her collection, knowing that it'd need a lot of work to repair the damaged frame and other problems that older, weathered cars had.

 

**_Steve Rogers_ **

 

Steve woke up way before Natasha ever did, though his muscles were achy from sleeping on the couch. He didn't really care that he had to, cause whenever she ended up falling asleep watched movies, he'd put her in his bed and sleep on the couch. It was a thing they did that he enjoyed, though it wasn't always on the best occasions.  
  
Sometimes he was comforting her after she got upset about not being able to help complete the work on her building, or other times they were having a good day and ended it on a good beat. Or how it happened a majority of the time, one of them had the spur of the moment idea and it happened. One moment, they'd be watching a movie and the next, Natasha was passed out in the crook of his arm, her head on his chest. It warmed his stomach and he'd let her stay like that for a while before putting her to bed and grabbing the blanket off the back of his couch so that he could sleep in there.  
  
Now, his routine had been the same since he'd woken from the ice, with a few obvious exceptions. He woke up, stretched, got into his work out clothes and went for a brisk morning jog. When he was done jogging circles around the other guys, he would go home, shower, change into his day clothes, and drink a cup of coffee before making he and Natasha breakfast.

So once breakfast was done, he had figured that Natasha wasn't coming up, he decided to find her.   
  
After a year of living with the brunette, he'd pretty much figured out her places to go when she didn't want to be bothered. She was either on the balcony of her penthouse having a virgin drink or she was in her lab working on a new project. Usually the latter of the two was right. 

So down the stairs he started. It was a long walk/jog and a good workout, but he was also carrying two plates of food and had to make it down twenty flights of stairs with fifteen stairs per flight because Natasha's lab didn't have a normal elevator level. Steve learned that the hard way.   
  
Anyways, most of it was spent balancing the plates while he tried to make his way down, but also dodging people(who were probably used to his antics by now involving Natasha.) There was also a portion of him that was nervous and is stomach was aching from anxiety over the issue. He usually did his best to not let that show though, as it wasn't always pleasant to see it. He had to be strong for his team.  
  
The distractions had made the trip down the stairs faster than normal, and he expertly balanced the plates on his arm so that he could open the door to Natasha's lab. The room which was quiet on the outside was loud on the inside. He looked around after shutting the door and setting their plates down, finding her bare feet sticking out from under a car.  
  
"Natasha?", he asked, but earned no response.  
  
"Natasha.", Steve called again,  but he got no response once more.  
  
" _Natasha_.", he called, grabbing her ankle and-

 

_**CRUNCH.** _

 

_**Natasha Stark** _

 

Natasha felt horrible as she looked at Steve, who's nose was currently leaking blood from where she'd broken it.  "Steve, I'm so sorry.", the brunette apologized for what was probably the millionth time in the past ten minutes. "I didn't mean to break your nose."  
  
Steve half smiled, partly because smiling hurt his nose. "It's ok, Natasha. I probably shouldn't have grabbed your ankle, considering that you're trained to fight. Plus, you didn't know who I was. For all you knew, I could have been Ivan Vanko or someone like that. ", he assured her, though it didn't appear to be working. "Plus, it's almost dried enough to have it reset and it'll heal like you never even broke it. I promise."  
  
God, even when he'd just been kicked in the face and his nose broken, Steve was still too good looking and too nice for his own good.  
  
"Hey, Natasha?", Steve asked, something in his voice sounding off to her. It was soft and caring and she wanted it to go away. She'd wanted to avoid this and the pain that came with it. She'd rather her own nose be broken in return than what she thought he wanted to talk about.  
  
"We need to talk about last night.", he murmured, affection in his voice. That's what it was. Affection.  
  
"Steve, I was drunk. You know that I can get weird when I'm drunk, Captain Sober.", she partly joked, partly trying to be serious.  
  
Steve gave her a sad, yet determined look. "You can't tell me that's true, Natasha. You can't say it while looking me in the eyes.", he bet, watching the brunette. God, how could he do this to her. She didn't want to mess things up like she'd done with Pepper.  
  
They didn't talk about Pepper.  
  


"Steve...", she whispered, then pushed her palms into her face, moving her bangs and covering her eyes. "You know how I feel about this. After...what happened, I swore this off. I swore I wouldn't have another Pepper."  
  
Pepper was the word that they used for, "Natasha, you've done fucked up this time."  
  
But suddenly, Steve's lips were on hers and she didn't even try to push him away. His lips were soft, even though the kiss was chaste and unexpected. She'd imagined this for so long and yet, it didn't seem like it was actually happening.  
  
And it was over just as quickly.  
  
"I-I'm sorry, Natasha. I shouldn't have-", he started, but then they were kissing again, smoother, easier. Her hands were on his stomach, moving up his shirt to feel the skin underneath. He pulled her closer, deepening the kiss as they went. Next his shirt was coming off and Steve suddenly pulled himself away from the entire situation, leaving her in front of him where she'd been. He looked like his nose hurt from that too.  
  
"I can't do that. Standards from my time are...different than those of today.", he quickly tossed in, and she shrugged.

"It's ok. I don't mind, Steve."  
  
He smiled and she reached up, shoving his nose back into place.

Natasha flinched as he let out a loud howl, watching as the pain took effect over him. "You couldn't have warned me?", he asked as he put the rag back under his nose, just in case it started bleeding again.  
  
"It would have hurt more because you would be expecting it."  
  
He shook his head and sniffed a bit. At least it was already healing.


	3. Welcome to the Jungle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We go back to the beginning of all of this to see where our heros started out at the end of the battle, when the war began.

**_Steve Rogers_ **

 

After making sure New York was safe from peril, banishing Loki, and eating Schwarma, Captain Steve Rogers found himself homeless, hiding his face lest someone recognize him. S.H.I.E.L.D. was having way too many of their own problems for him to not feel like a nuisance, and he really had no ideas how to find anyone but Natasha; who was more than likely busy cleaning up Stark Tower and rebuilding what could be rebuilt. Instead, he found himself homeless for the first time in his entire life. After saving the city his life had taken a turn for the worse. Gold streets, long sleepless nights and rooting through trash bags for food that didn’t look rotten or slobbered on.

That was until...

_ Natasha Stark found him. _

 

**_Natasha Stark_ **

**_One Month Earlier_ **

 

Stark Tower was an absolute wreck, her belongings in ruins, and Natasha Stark was stuck in a hospital with an annoyingly loud, not to mention constant, heart monitor beeping at her. She silently willed for A, her headache to go away or B, for her heart to stop working so that noise would go away. Thankfully after much complaining of being bored, the staff let her bring in some of her technology so at the very least she could start working again. This was the one time she'd admit to needing help, the idea of rebuilding a multi million dollar, highly advanced tower was beyond her comprehension and she needed to find someone to do the heavy lifting since she couldn't. Even in her suit. There had to be a way to rebuild Stark Tower without doing it herself.

 

"Miss Stark, I've finished the search you had asked for. It turns out that Captain Rogers is currently homeless.", the almost-human voice of Jarvis, her AI, rang through the room, causing her to become confused. Even if she still sound faintly robotic, Stark had created a realistic enough voice even she sounded surprised. 

 

Steve had many friends among both the Avengers and throughout S.H.I.E.L.D. he had more than earned the support from his peers with the way he shamelessly fought for his country. Enough friends that it’d made no sense for him to be living out on the streets of New York. He should have known where she was at almost any time and he should have asked her for help. Hell, he could have contacted Fury. She was sure that he could have found a place to stay. However, Captain America was stubborn to the core. He probably didn’t want to burden anyone with that, using excuses and claims of being able to care for himself to brush off the people that did ask.

  
What had caused the homelessness was unclear to Natasha, but she knew that this would end very shortly. Captain Roger’s help was needed, and he went where he was needed even if he didn’t mean to. Trouble seemed to follow him sometimes but really, it followed all of them.   
  
“Jarvis, will you start on project Star Spangled Man Mark 1-2?”, Natasha half asked, half commanded, hoping that her bots wouldn’t mess this up.   
  


**_Two weeks later_ ** **_  
_ ** **_Steve Rogers_ **

 

“Captain Rogers.”, Jarvis started, causing Steve to jolt out of his sleep to a suit larger than Natasha’s normal ones. It was also painted in likeness to… to his suit.    
  
“Please tell me that Natasha doesn’t expect me to get into that thing.”, Cap pleaded, knowing that was exactly the case. Of course it would be. Natasha just loved to torture him, he could see the smirk on her face when she planned this in his head.   
  
“I cannot tell you that it will be easy, but Miss Stark has the suit set to auto-pilot. She has even tested it to assure your well being.”, Jarvis explained, though it made Steve feel no less better about getting into the suit, which opened like a container fit to him. Natasha liked to mess with him, sure, but she wouldn't risk his life over something like this.    
  
He could feel the suit close around him, making his stomach squirm with anxiety. Few things frightened him, but one of those was claustrophobia. it all felt like it was closing in on him, the metal snugly closed around his body. his throat tightened.    
  
“What in God’s name have I gotten myself into?!?!”, the blonde shouted into the microphone, almost screaming as he flew through the air. He was totally helpless and immobile, as Natasha had control over the suit and what he could and couldn’t do. God, this was horrifying and Steve wanted out so badly, but he’d agreed to be enclosed in a flying, metallic prison for some reason that he couldn’t identify and that made him terrified. He felt like one of Natasha’s play toys. He couldn’t even clench his fists, a trickle of sweat making his temple itch.

 

He hadn’t signed up for this-   
  
Oh wait, he had.   
  
When Steve had joined the Army, had become the Super Soldier, he’d signed up for this. When he joined the Avengers, he’d signed up for this. He had signed up for anything they had to throw at him or well, to throw him at; or even occasionally to quite literally throw Natasha at. Now he was regretting all of this just a tad. A tad being more so than he’d ever had in his entire life.

 

“Jarvis, when is she going to have me land?”, Steve asked, feeling sick to his stomach. Vomiting in the suit would make the experience all the worse.   
  
“I’ve never controlled a suit with a joystick before. This is actually kinda fun.”, Natasha informed him, randomly appearing in the feed. He had a sneaking suspicion she had set up a camera to watch his expressions as the movements the suit made felt much more… dramatic than they needed to be. “However, I only had Jarvis come and get you. I’ll be flying you to the hospital.”

  
  
_ That grabbed Steve’s attention. _   


 

He took a mental step back, trying a different angle for talking to her. “Wait, why the hospital? What happened? Who got hurt?”, he asked, totally confused and out of the loop about what’d happened to her (and most things) while he’d been away; thankfully not frozen this time.    
  
“I’m fine. The battle just messed me up for a minute. My heart stopping made them freak out and apparently they think it short circuited me somehow. I’m fine though.”, she told him, making Steve frown. He guessed it was like turning a computer on and off, something he had only recently gotten the hang of.   
  
“Obviously if it landed you in the hospital, it was serious, Natasha. You can’t just blow everything off. Just because you’re Iron Woman doesn’t mean that you’re any more invincible than anyone else. You can get hurt and sick and you shouldn’t have avoided going. It could have killed you.”, he scolded, feeling like a parental figure rather than her peer or coworker.   
  
Natasha scoffed at Steve, and he could feel her rolling her eyes. “I think that came with the whole, I’m Iron Woman announcement, Steve.”   
  
“Touche, but that doesn’t mean this is over. You’re putting yourself into unnecessary danger, and you’re already in enough as it is.” he insisted, concern bleeding into his strict words.   
  
“You’re infuriating, Steve. However, we’ll have to finish this little conversation in person. You’re landing now.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait! I only recently have had the ability to get onto a computer and type this out. Also, a huge thank you to Elaurora, my new editor! You did such a great job and I greatly appreciate your help!
> 
> I have up to chapter seven, then I'm kinda blocked on what I'm going to do with the story from there, but I'm sure I'll figure something out. Chapter Four should be out today/tomorrow at some point.
> 
> Have a nice night!


	4. An Insomniac and a Movie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Natasha becomes sleepless and Steve devises a plan to get her to sleep.

**_Steve Rogers_ **

 

Steve ran a hand through his dusty hair after finishing up his work on Natasha’s dry wall for the penthouse, aka her private room and bar. Natasha was sitting on the ladder, messing with several different kinds of wires, stripping them of the brightly colored protective rubber and carefully weaving them together to create longer wires; or at least that’s what he’d been told she was doing. he wasn’t exactly an expert on electronics. Of course, even after two nights of sleeplessness, very messy hair that was on the edge of disgusting, and the equivalent of pajamas on, Natasha still managed to look good to him. She always looked good to him. 

  
However, her continuous lack of sleep concerned him.   
  
She was smart, however that didn’t mean she wasn’t without her flaws. When her nightmares were too much, Natasha would stay away for days on end. Between being captured and forced to create the Iron Woman suit, Ivan, and what’d happened in New York a year ago, the doctors told him that she had severe PTSD that caused nightmares and occasional flashes of old memories and severe panic attacks that scared him.    
  
Natasha refused the medicine and the evaluation from her therapist, disagreeing all together like the stubborn girl she is, which made Steve’s job of helping her recover all the more difficult.    
  
However difficult Natasha was being, it didn’t make Steve love her any less. if anything it was endearing. On the other hand… the insomnia made her harder to deal with at times, and if he even mentioned sleep, she’d flip on him about how she was fine and didn’t need it, starting to go on about her studies of the human body and if humans actually did need sleep. So instead, he’d mention about watching a movie and they’d go into their normal routine again. “Hey doll, how about we call it a day and get some popcorn and a movie to watch?”, he asked, causing laughter to come from Natasha.   
  
“Doll?”, she asked, stripping two wires and twisted them together and he shrugged.                                             “You need to come up with better nicknames than that, preferably something without the fifties lingo.”, she told him, smiling a bit. “However, yes. A movie and popcorn does sound nice. Just let me finish this and I’ll be ready to call it quits for now.”

 

“So I’ll go make the popcorn if you’d like to choose the movie.”, he told her, putting the tools up for the moment. The tower could wait a few hours while they watched a movie.   
  


**_Natasha Stark_ **

  
  


It’d been two months since the thing with Steve had happened. Aka Natasha got drunk as hell and had been talking about that fine ass of his. Man, was that ass fine. However, he frustrated her in the one department that she wasn’t used to being frustrated in. That would be the sexual one.   
  


Despite the fact that they could basically dry hump one another, Natasha couldn’t seem to get past pulling his shirt off. He always pulled away and told her that he didn’t feel comfortable, which she never pushed. After all, when it happened, it would. She never pushed him past a comfortable point.

  
However, there were perks to dating Captain America, such as getting to watch both guys and girls get jealous as Natasha kissed him goodbye when he had to go on missions or when she took him into work. It was great to watch them go from fawning over him to glaring at her, which she only smiled and waved to Steve’s confusion. That was a secret that she’d enjoy for a long time.   
  
“I have the popcorn if you have the movie.”, Steve called, causing her to jump slightly. “Uhm...not yet. I should get on that. How does Forest Gump sound?” she offered, catching a glimpse of the disk.    
  
“I watched that with Bruce.”   
  
“Then...Annie? It’s a movie about an orphan who gets adopted by a wealthy business man.”, Natasha suggested instead, not noticing the similarity.    
  
“Sounds familiar.” he said with a smile, shrugging.    
  
Natasha became unmoving at that comment, frowning as her shoulders tensed and drew back into a somewhat defensive stance.. “I was a convenience to Harold, Steve. My mom wanted a child, my dad needed an heir, and I fit the bill.”   
  
Steve was surprised at the snideness over her parents, having known Harold a while back. “I’m sure it wasn’t like that-” he felt guilty for bringing up the subject and not keeping his mouth shut.    
  
“Harold was obliging my mother’s want for a daughter. They couldn’t have kids and they both got something out of it. When she died, I was sent off to boarding school until I was eighteen, then he died and I took over Stark Industries. He didn’t do anything unless it benefited him, Steve. My mom wanted me and he gave her what he wanted. End of story.” her tone was sharp, cutting through the thick tension that had blanketed the room all of a sudden.    
  
“I-I’m sorry.”, he said quietly, not realizing how Harold was at home.   
  
Whoops, mood ruined.   
  
“You..you didn’t know. You knew him back before he’d met my mom. After she died, he changed. His ‘charming qualities’ became his downfall. He changed and built a wall around himself so that no one could get in. It’s not your fault he did it. You didn’t know.”, she sighed, letting the tension leave her body, feeling guilty about the way she had reacted. He was just trying to tease her a little and she had turned it into a fiasco.    
  
He nodded, but Natasha knew that he was offput by this new information. So she picked another movie, putting it in and sat down next to him. He looked skeptical, but she’d deal with it later. They both needed to relax and the work both had them spread thin. A movie and a cuddle session was exactly what they needed.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! The chapters should be posted at least twice a week!


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